NC PCSS-University training program for medical students in North Carolina. - The proposed North Carolina Provider’s Clinical Support System – Universities Project (NC PCSS U) is a 3 year project to address the opioid epidemic by expanding and enhancing access to medication assisted treatment (MAT) through education and training for NC medical students and building medical school capacity to support these activities. Four medical schools in NC, that collectively produce 545 new doctors each year, will participate: Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine (CUSOM), University of NC School of Medicine (UNCSOM), Eastern Carolina University Brody School of Medicine (ECUSOM), and Wake Forest School of Medicine (WFSOM). They have committed to (1) integrating opioid use disorder into their standard curricula such that students will be eligible to apply for the DATA 2000 Waiver to prescribe buprenorphine once they are issued a DEA number and (2) providing expanded opportunities for shadowing and clinical exposure to Office Based Opioid Treatment (OBOT). This clinical exposure will allow students to experience OBOT in action and see/discuss clinical issues, challenges, solutions, and positive treatment outcomes/benefits to increase student “readiness”, dispel stigma, and provide student with knowledge about PCSS and other resources available to assist them in offering MAT. This exposure is critical to increasing the number of trainees who apply for the waiver and actively prescribe.
Working with the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and The Provider’s Clinical Support System, our expert addiction medicine physicians with waiver training experience will develop training options (e.g. live, remote live, online) and work with school faculty on trainings at their specific schools, providing mentoring and building capacity for the school to provide future trainings and OBOT clinical sites. The training will include the requirements of the 8-hour Waiver course, but will also address pain management and safer opioid prescribing, as well as the broader issues related to substance use disorders.
Goals include increasing the supply of physicians trained in NC to provide MAT, increasing the capacity of NC medical schools to train a workforce equipped to prevent and treat OUD, increase the supply of physicians with the DATA 2000 Waiver who actively prescribe, and to develop infrastructure that will ensure sustainability. We expect that approximately 545 future doctors will be trained in years 2 and 3 of the project, with total of 1,090 over the 3 year grant. The impact this will have on future patients, families, communities, and healthcare systems cannot be calculated, but is most likely an excellent return on investment. Three of the schools have strong primary care focus and two of the schools (Campbell and ECU) have been focused on and successful in producing physicians to work in underserved rural areas of NC.
